fdmts

One of the groups with whom I work just published a paper. It’s interesting in that it may be the first paper to describe the whole genome sequencing and analysis of an entire genus. Maybe. Or not. I can’t keep up with big science anymore. It’s the genus that includes plague.

Anyway, I helped out with this at the very end of the process – when a reviewer pointed out (correctly) that a couple of the strains in the paper were not yet in the public repositories. I.e: The data wasn’t *actually* available to the public yet.

We went digging, the lead author and I, and finally located the files based on what can be best described as “the dog shit connection.” He noted that this strain had been isolated from dog feces, in Germany, in the 70s. I ran a search in the wiki on “feces,” and there was the data. The rest is history.

Lest you think I’m making this up – here’s a table from the publication. I love my job.